Cougars win on Senior Night over Panthers

Brandon Dawson did it again on Senior Night for the Newnan Cougars as he allowed two hits and recorded nine strikeouts in five innings of work in the 9-1 victory over the Langston Hughes Panthers at Joe Pope Field.

Brandon Dawson had yet another strong outing as he allowed two hits and recorded nine strikeouts over five innings and had an RBI at the plate Wednesday as the Newnan Cougarsdefeated the Langston Hughes Panthers 9-1 in a Region 3-AAAAAA matchup at Joe Pope Field.
The Cougars (19-5, 12-2) and the Panthers (11-13, 4-10) will face each other Thursday night in the regular season finale at Fairburn with the Cougars taking the second seed in the playoffs and the Panthers needing to win the finale and hope for a Douglas County loss to carry the fourth seed.
The Cougars will host the Newton County Rams next Friday in the playoffs.
The Panthers took the first lead of the game as Eugene Freeman hit Dawson's second offering of the evening into right center field for a triple and scored on a two out single by Karl Marquez.
However, the lead lasted one inning as Charles reeves reached on a one out bunt single, stole second and advanced to third on a single by Rodney Tennie before coming home with the tying run on a wild pitch.
Tennie, who took second on the wild pitch that scored Reeves, advanced to third on an other wild pitch by Panthers starter Max Hyde and scored the go ahead runon a sacrifcie fly to center fiekld by Will Dreggors.
In the bottom of the fourth inning,  the Cougars added a pair of runs to take a 4-1 lead but not in a common manner as no one was credited with an RBI.
Reeves led off the inning by reaching on a walk and stole second base before Tennie reached via the same route.
Corey Cox hit a popfly to Marquez at second base and the latter was tangled wit Tennie as the Cougars center fielder tried to return to first.
Meanwhile, Reeves came home on the play and Tennie made it back to first and was granted second as Marquez was called for interference.
With Bryson Shoemake at the plate, Tennie advanced to third base on a balk call against Hyde and advanced home on a wild pitch for the second run of the inning.
The Cougars managed to pull away in the bottom of the fifth inning as they scored three runs to take a 7-1 lead.
Drew Morris made his father head coach Kenny Morris with a single to left and a subsequent steal of second base.
Beau Shelnutt reached on a walk the Sam Buchanan followed with a line shot into the outfield that became a two-run triple.
Dawson helped his own cause on the next bat as he a flyball to left field that brought courtesy runner Drew Oldham home from third base.
After five innings, Kenny Morris made several changes on defense including on the mound as Dawson was replaced by Grayson Stewart who held the Panthers scoreless in his two innings of work despite getting knocked around with a couple of hits and a pair of walks.
Getting an additional pair of runs didn't hurt the Cougars' cause as Cox led off the bottom of the sixth inning and after one out Zack Crawford reached first after being hit by a pitch then Morris reached on his second hit of the game.
Shelnutt hit into a fielders choice that forced Morris at second but allowed Cox to come home and on the play, a throwing error allowed Crawford to come home with the final run of the evening.